Mercadona Divides One Billion Euros Among Employees: Bonuses, Raises, and Longer Vacations

Mercadona, the undisputed leader of the Spanish retail market, implemented a massive profit redistribution operation in February 2026, whose total cost to the company's budget exceeded one billion euros. The main pillar of this program is the payment of 780 million euros in variable bonuses for achieving business goals. The reward mechanism promotes loyalty: employees with more than four years of service, constituting about 70% of the workforce, received the equivalent of three monthly salaries this month. In practice, this means an additional net transfer of approximately 5,400 euros for most store and logistics center staff. Those employed for a shorter period received a bonus equivalent to two paychecks, which still places Mercadona's standards well above the market average in the retail sector. The second key element of the strategy is the valorization of base salaries, for which 125 million euros were allocated. Management decided to raise wages by 2.9% in Spain and 2.2% in Portugal, basing these calculations on the CPI index, which monitors consumers' real purchasing power. The company is not only reacting to current living costs but also introducing revolutionary changes in managing leisure time. Starting in 2026, the annual vacation entitlement increases from 30 to 37 calendar days. This change, generating an annual cost of around 100 million euros, aims to improve the physical and mental well-being of the workforce, which directly translates into lower staff turnover and higher customer service quality. Mercadona's business model is based on the SPB (Siempre Precios Bajos - Always Low Prices) strategy and a unique approach to the supply chain, in which integrated suppliers invest billions of euros in infrastructure to meet the network's quality requirements. The scale of the company's operations impacts the entire Spanish economy, as confirmed by the latest data on network supplier investments, which reached 1.7 billion euros in the last calendar year. Meanwhile, in the Spanish automotive market, the first price drops for used cars in six years have been recorded, although the segment of cars older than ten years continues to become more expensive. Mercadona, controlling nearly 27% of the food market share, remains the main determinant of wage trends, forcing competitors to revise their own HR policies in the face of growing employee demands. „Este es un esfuerzo conjunto que confirma que nuestro modelo de gestión invierte y apuesta por la satisfacción del trabajador.” (This is a joint effort that confirms our management model invests in and bets on worker satisfaction.) — President and main shareholder of the Mercadona network, architect of its market success.